1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is methods and systems for facilitating international travel, and more particularly, methods and systems for facilitation of customs planning.
2. Description of Related Art
Customs regulations govern the movement of goods into and out of a country. With advances in technology, the world is becoming a smaller place. The quantity of goods moved in international trade has grown phenomenally in the recent past. Crossing borders with goods, however, entails adherence to different sets of rules and regulations for different nations. Every international traveler has to pass through customs checks and these checks are some of the most irritating and time-consuming aspects of international customs planning and clearance. The emergence of new technologies in the form of wired or wireless data communications has offered new opportunities for improved traveling and customs clearance experiences while complying with customs regulations.
Goods can be excludable or dutiable for many reasons, many of which are very difficult to analyze in advance. In the United States, for example, at the time of this writing, there are import restrictions regarding origins of goods, as for example, goods from Cuba, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Serbia, and Sudan. There are restrictions on categories of goods, as for example, fish and wildlife products, food and plant products, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, ammunitions, medicines, and narcotics. There are trademark and copyright limitations on imports of counterfeit goods.
Even professional importers find it difficult to import goods without violating customs regulations. The U.S. Department of Commerce has a program, known as the “Informed Compliance Strategy,” designed to improve voluntary compliance with U.S. customs regulations. The program is founded upon the observations, among other things, that (1) more than sixty percent of U.S. import value is attributable to the top 1000 importers, (2) about twenty percent of imports fail to comply with U.S. customs regulations, and (3) most such failures to comply are honest. The U.S. Customs Service's administrative regulations known as the “Customs Valuation Encyclopedia,” subtitled “An Informed Compliance Publication,” in its January 2001 version, is 452 pages in length. Even honest, professional, expert importers cannot figure out how to import goods into the United States without violating customs regulations.
The difficulty of complying with customs regulations is compounded across many countries, and is essentially unmanageable for typical international travelers who are not professional importers. Typical international travelers are presented with customs declarations forms on board aircraft, trains, or ships at sea a short time before arriving at a customs check point in an air terminal, port, or border crossing. For example, in arriving in the United States, travelers are typically required to complete a Declaration, U.S. Customs Form CF-6059B, and, for goods that the traveler shipped separately, a Declaration of Unaccompanied Articles, U.S. Customs Form CF-255. The forms make no pretense of providing full explanations of the customs regulations. Even if the forms did fully explain importability and dutiability of goods declared, it would be too late. The goods are already purchased, in the possession of the traveler, and the plane, ship, or train is already nearing the customs check point.
The scope and application of such customs rules and regulations, moreover, varies considerably from nation to nation. It is very difficult, given present information availability and systems quality, to know with certainty in advance of arriving in a port of entry, for example, whether goods will be excluded or subjected to duty. Travelers can easily find their plans frustrated or ruined. It is a particular difficulty that the duties to be paid upon declared goods are not known to traveling importers, if ever, until just before arriving at a port of entry. Moreover, there is no usefully organized way in the prior art for traveling importers to know the cumulative effect, in terms of duties, of importing various quantities of goods among one or more countries. Moreover, there is no way in the prior art for traveling importers to pay customs duties in advance of arrival at a port of entry.
For all these reasons, therefore, there is an ongoing need for improvements in methods and systems for, and the experience of, international customs planning.